Community Design Workshops

The City Council allocated additional funds for 2016-2017 to facilitate additional outreach.

Urban Village Community Design Workshops

The format of the workshops includes an opening overview presentation on the range of HALA strategies, description of Urban Villages, and the principles of the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) proposal, followed by a series of small facilitated working group conversations to stimulate discussion and record feedback on the Executive Office’s draft set of maps.

These workshops focus on issue identification of community opportunities and concerns about the proposed zoning changes, including where the boundary for urban villages should be drawn, what mix of zones best support the context and conditions of local areas, and how to encourage more housing options and while preserving and extending elements of livability (including strategies to support transitions as well as encourage neighborhood amenities such as frequent and reliable transit, community-serving businesses, parks, and schools).

The goals of these workshops are to:

Assist community members to understand and interpret preliminary recommendations for Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program and potential changes to zoning and land use;

Provide an additional opportunity for community members and other interested groups to provide focused input on the program, especially where there is/are:

a recommendation for significant boundary expansions,

proposed changes to single family areas within current Urban Villages, as well as

areas with both a high risk of displacement and low access to opportunity as identified in the City of Seattle’s Growth and Equity Analysis; and

Help inform the Office of Planning and community Development (OPCD) and City Council about these communities’ vision of how Urban Villages should look, feel, and function in support of important citywide goals for increased affordability, design quality, and housing options in neighborhoods throughout the city.